Creighton University is a comprehensive university located in Omaha, Nebraska. The Creighton University School of Medicine was designated a Center of Excellence (COE) by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration in 2003. The long-term goals of the COE program address bridging the gap in local and national disparities in healthcare and healthcare delivery. Expanding on existing COE programming, Creighton proposes to use NCMHD Endowment funds to establish a Community-Oriented Primary Care (COPC) Public Health Research Endowment to build capacity to train students in COPC public health research in underserved communities. The proposed program has the following areas of emphasis and objectives: Area of Emphasis 1: Increase student involvement in COPC public health research, with particular emphasis on addressing health disparities among medically underserved populations in Nebraska and Iowa. Objective 1-1: Establish an endowed summer research program to support preclinical medical students in a COPC public health research assistantship. Objective 1-2: Establish an endowed community research elective to support fourth-year medical students in a longitudinal COPC public health research experience. Area of Emphasis 2: Strengthen and expand mentoring and tutoring services to encourage health disparity students to pursue COPC public health research. Objective 2-1: Formalize the existing Common Grounds program and establish it as an endowed student/faculty forum for discussing health disparities research in a "shared inquiry" format. Objective 2-2: Establish an endowed program for training medical student tutors. Area of Emphasis 3: Increase medical school enrollment of health disparity students interested in participating in health disparity research. Objective 3-1: Develop an endowed scholarship that will facilitate recruitment of highly qualified health disparity students interested in conducting health disparity research. [unreadable] [unreadable] The objectives of the COPC Public Health Research Endowment program support the Creighton University School of Medicine's mission to improve the human condition through excellence in educating students and the School's vision to be a school that is distinguished for preparing graduates who demonstrate extraordinary compassion and commitment to the service of others. [unreadable] [unreadable]